Letter: Lafayette, do better than board member’s anti-gay approach – Journal & Courier
Lafayette School Corp.’s new school board member, Chuck Hockema, is antithetical to the education I received at Jeff High School.
My name is Joe Heath, a name probably very familiar to the readers of this community. It was my late, great Uncle Joe who made such an impact on Jeff High School. I transferred to Jeff my sophomore year from TSC because I wanted more out of my education. I wanted to learn in a place I would be accepted for who I am as an artist and musician.
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During my time at Jeff, I was surrounded by teachers who made me feel at home. Also a lot of them understood and supported those who were openly gay during a time when gay marriage wasn’t even legal yet. Those kids needed that support, and to see Chuck now taking a 1930’s Germany approach to posters, attacking the trans community and baselessly claiming students are being taught CRT, is a sad and depressing reality.
I am ashamed that the community of which I graduated would elect such a person to this position. It is completely out of line with the morals and principles LSC has upheld for years, not only under the first Joe Heath, but also under the second.
Children do not grow out of being trans, and teachers should (and lawfully do have the right) to encourage those students to feel whole within their own bodies and chosen identity.
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Without the opinions and support of my teachers at Jeff, I would not have become the successful man I am today. The ilk of this ideology is deeply rooted in sexism, homophobia and racism and it should not be allowed to stand a full term on this school board.
Return it to the ashbin of history.
I moved to LSC for community, openness, a wide variety of world-views I was not getting in county schools and to see this charlatan begin to wage war on that community is not only insulting but it’s frankly disgusting.
Do better, Lafayette.
— Joe Heath, Denver, Colo.